( #lifegoals ) How millennials are affording the life they want today

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Travel is now an escape, a reward, and a passion for all, and millennials are embracing this newfound love with a gutsy attitude and an effective strategy to boot. 

Smart travelers Adrian Cailao, JJ Se and Aia Tabal share their secrets on how to travel freely, sign up for graduate school, and pursue multiple dreams today. 

Get started on your #lifegoals

"I usually travel with a group of friends. We plan ahead, about a year in advance. We look for airline seat sales. We read blogs on budget traveling and we have a pool for travel fund," Adrian expertly explains. 

Certified millennial traveler Adrian enjoys quick escapes while working on his life goals.

Listing traveling under his core interests, this 29-year-old has explored much of the archipelago, experiencing the Philippines' most beautiful for self-discovery and relaxation.

His colleague JJ agrees with him. He says travel is a great means to expand his range of experiences. "I've seen the hanging coffins in Sagada, experienced the culinary heritage of Central Luzon, and explored the underground river of Palawan. I also went on my first solo flight abroad to Malaysia and Singapore last year."

JJ, however, is the first to say that dreams don’t just fall into one’s lap. When he isn’t out posting his adventures on Instagram, this traveler is busy shuttling between his work in Alabang and UP Diliman for his graduate classes. He explains, “I live in the south so I have to go back again, go home to get rest, and repeat the routine the following day.” 

Another achievement unlocked. Aia adds Norway to places she has visited. 

Fortunately, he has a colleague like Aia, who he can look up to. Newly-graduated from Ateneo Business School, the MBA-Regis degree holder is now looking for a fresh set of adventures. “I plan to enroll in baking or cooking classes. For travel goals, I am planning my next trip to Australia and Maldives. My sister and I went to Norway just a few months back. Now, we’re drafting our shared travel list,” Aia excitedly adds. 

No one would have guessed that this career-driven millennial is also a wanderlust and has explored much of the Philippines and popular Asian destinations like China, Korea, and Japan.

Win your own success with this millennial secret

Millennials do not wait for a “break” to excel, achieve, and experience the world. Adrian, JJ and Aia exemplified this, when they decided to invest in the life that they want. Their Insular Life policies have helped them outline their adventures, without sacrificing their personal milestones. 

JJ allots time to enjoy Philippine marvels like the San Juanico Bridge. 

JJ explains, “Honestly, I didn’t understand the importance of life insurance before. To me, it was something that ‘adults’ should get, in case something bad or unexpected happens to them. I didn’t know it as a tool that can help me fund my goals.” 

Adrian reveals that, at his age, he already has two years’ worth of financial tracking records. He uses them to strategize on his spending and investments. "If a travel would not fit the budget, I have to say 'no'. I've learned to focus on my goals and now I am building up my insurance policies and investment profits to fund my next travel goals in Europe and America.”

For Aia, saving up for goals is just a matter of developing the right habits. She says, “I compute my expected cash inflow for the year, deduct expenses including my premiums for Insular Life’s Wealth Secure, and then plan out my trips. If budget permits, I also do top-ups for my Wealth Builder policy, because I’m planning to withdraw some of it for my future international trips.”

Follow these thrill seekers and enjoy living in the moment, not just for the moment. Start your own Magandang Araw with Insular Life and plan ahead to secure a fulfilling, financially-free and exhilarating Magandang Bukas. 

Visit www.insularlife.com.ph/ to know how you can start achieving your #adulting goals.

Vincent Soberano's action horror thriller film "Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids" stars Sarah Chang

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"Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids" is an action-packed fantasy/martial arts film by director Vincent Soberano. 

Vincent Soberano

One exclusive interview with Director Vincent Soberano, a real martial art expert and eight times Muay Thai world Champion shared to us that his main motivation in doing the action thriller film Blood Hunters is to promote Filipino martial arts in Filipino movies to the international audiences. This sets the stage of a new era of Filipino action films penetrating the international market. " They’ve used Filipino martial arts in blockbuster action films like John Wick, Jason Bourne, Frankenstein and other films, no one knows its Filipino because its always portrayed by Hollywood stars. I think it's time to change it. A cultural, martial arts, fantasy action film is always a great combination if done right. This is the perfect blend that we want to achieve."

We also meet "Blood Hunters" lead female star Sarah Chang, American Born Chinese action actress and Wushu Practioner, Sarah Chang, five-time USA National Wushu Team member.

Growing up influenced in martial arts from childhood and having trained with the likes of those familiar with action star Jet Li. Sarah now is candidate for Mulan movie. Excitingly, Sarah shared that an independent trailer for The Rise of Mulan show her in the title role.

She said that in the Blood Hunters movie, her character as Gabriela, "never gives up on conquering the pain, conquering yourself. Gabriela never gives up, Vince (Soberano's character) will never give up on his dream. Blood Hunters will conquer the world." 

Sarah said that the film will promote and showcase different kinds of martial arts from all over the world.

“And what it is to work with all different cultures in the world. Like martial arts is its own community, we all speak martial arts,” said Sarah.

"Blood Hunters" combines bone-crunching martial arts action with mysterious and mythical characters from ancient Filipino folklore. A secret organization hires ruthless mercenaries to hunt down the queen of aswang, an underworld species. Their goal: to extract her blood, which has the capability of bringing humans back from the dead and transforming them into aswang creatures.

The 1st Filipino International Action-Fantasy-Martial Arts Movie "Blood Hunters" is set to show the world that Asian actors for Asian roles is the new Hollywood.

Be your own ‘iconic’: five ways to re-master your Levi’s

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We all have at least one old pair of Levi’s jeans that will always be our favorite. For this reason, the timeless brand suggests a clever way to reuse these well-loved pairs and make them even better: re-mastering. This technique inspires us to experiment with Levi’s jeans and personalize these to suit our individual styles. After all, the Levi’s brand has always been about authenticity and originality—and Levi’s pieces are perfect canvasses for self-expression. 

Here, Levi’s very own master tailors share tips and tricks on how to make your Levi’s as original as you are, so you can be your own ‘iconic’. 

• Taper your jeans. If you want a skinnier look for your Levi’s jeans or need to keep your cuffs out for a reason, you can taper its legs. 

Here’s how to do it: first, pin your leg taper and rip out the ankle hems. Trace a line along your pins, and sew this line—this will be the new inseam. Rip out the old inseam; iron your new inseam flat; and sew the ankle hems.

• Get the destructed look. Distressed jeans are all the rage right now—a trend almost as ageless as the Levi’s brand. If you’re thinking of giving your Levi’s jeans an update, distressing is one way to go. 

Try this: With a pen, mark the spot in your jeans where you’d like to distress. Line your denim with a cardboard and cut through the jeans using a dull knife. Do this repeatedly until you achieve the desired effect. Finally, use a razor for a more frayed look. 

• Make cut-offs. Tired of your old pair of Levi’s but have trouble letting it go? Shorten it!

First, choose your desired length. Next, mark this line before making the chop. Then, distress your piece and wash to wrap up the look. Ta-dah, you now have a pair of Levi’s cropped jeans or distressed denim shorts! 

• Add panels to your Levi’s. Give your old Levi’s a touch of rock-and-roll by adding black leather panels. Levi’s master tailors share how-to’s:

First, mark where you want to place your panels, then trace lines on these. Proceed with measuring and marking your black leather fabric, then cut panels to the right size. 

Next, rip out the outside seams within the marks you made. Pin and sew the panels in place. Finally, flip your Levi’s jeans inside out and sew the outside seam closed. 

• Patch it up. Have your favorite Levi’s jeans acquired holes from wear and tear? Patch up holes—and other tears and tatters—with these easy steps:

Get your desired fabric for patching up, and cut this to the right size—just slightly larger than the hole. Pin the fabric in place, and hand-stitch around the hole. Again, use a sharp razor for additional fraying. 

If you’re doubtful about your tailoring skills, Levi’s still got your back. From time to time, Levi’s sets up tailor shops in various Levi’s outlets and stores and brings master tailors who personalize Levi’s pieces for customers and celebrities. 

Watch for the next Levi’s Tailor Shop and have your Levi’s jeans customized, too. 

ABOUT THE LEVI’S®BRAND

The Levi’s® brand epitomizes classic American style and effortless cool. Since their invention by Levi Strauss & Co. in 1873, Levi’s® jeans has become the most recognizable and imitated clothing in the world—capturing the imagination and loyalty of people for generations. Today, the Levi’s® brand portfolio continues to evolve through a relentless pioneering and innovative spirit that is unparalleled in the apparel industry. Our range of leading jeanswear and accessories are available in more than 110 countries, allowing individuals around the world to express their personal styles. For more information about the Levi’s® brand, its products and stores, please visit levi.com. 

The Predator on High Grounds : Global gaming PC brand takes centerstage at the country’s first fully branded gaming facility

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Global gaming PC brand Predator continues to overpower the competition in the local gaming PC market with the opening today of High Grounds Café, the country’s first and only fully branded gaming café.

Operated by the country’s top gaming café brand TheNet.com (TNC), High Grounds Café will definitely capture the attention of both gaming enthusiasts and professionals alike. It is fully armed to the teeth with top-of-the-line and powerful Predator gaming PCs in a gaming environment that’s unlike any other in the country today.

Located amid this city’s entertainment capital, High Grounds Café featured only the best gaming desktops courtesy of Predator, with 110 units of the Predator G1 (GTX 1080) and Predator G3 (GTX 1060) on hand for hours and hours of playing. 

The Predator G1 squeals with beastly bravado that suits today’s brawny gamers with its ultra-powerful Intel Core™ i7 6700 processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00GHz) inside and 32GB DDR4 2133MHz memory for enough show and swagger and truly rock the house with its fiery performance regardless of gaming title while the 3TB 3.5-inch 7200 RPM and 256 GB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive combination is a force to reckon with in terms of storage capability. For visual clarity that lets you get your head—and eyes—into the game, trust the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 with 8GB of GDDR5 graphics card to deliver the goods when it comes to an awesome and immersive game experience.

The Predator G3, meanwhile, boasts of the same over clocked Intel i7 processor for that ferocious roar in every game, powerful 16GB DDR4 2133MHz memory and 2TB 3.5-inch and 128GB Solid State Drive combination for the utmost in storage capacity and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 with 3GB GDDR5 graphics card that lets you stun your enemies with out-of-this-world graphics and dominate the esports scene.

Pair these two gaming monsters with the 24-inch full HD Predator XB241H monitors that support NVIDIA G sync technology to boost your game day with its no-tear and less-stutter performance for fast-paced games and ferocious visuals that will certainly stun any onlooker.

Thus, expect screams, shrieks of delight in conquest and supremacy to rock the High Grounds Cafe as hundreds of players can be accommodated there at any given time. Gamers can also enjoy glorious snacks and other meal-time favorites during breaks from their game triumphs so they can recharge their batteries and be ready to dominate the competition again.

The opening of High Grounds Café is also the perfect battleground for the launch of the Predator 21 X which gives gaming pros and tech enthusiasts the best and most fearsome gaming laptop ever. Targeting the well-heeled and loaded tech lovers out there who will spare no peso in getting the most advanced and powerful gaming rig around, the Predator 21 X is a perfect fit for gamers who seek a whole new level of immersion in terms of sound and visuals, interaction, cooling and power efficiency never seen before in any gaming laptop. 

The Predator 21 X is a humongous beast of a laptop that comes with a robust 21-inch-wide FHD (2560 x 1080) IPS screen with 2000R curvature for unbelievable visuals, 7th Generation Intel Core™ i7 processor, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 SLI with 16GB GDDR5X graphics card coupled with 64GB of DDR4 system memory, plus Acer ColorBlast™ technology for the clearest and most abundant colors ever to reach a laptop.

TNC.com owner Eric Redulfin said High Grounds Café breaks the barriers in what used to be Internet-surfing-only cyber cafes. “The environment now is totally different in terms of cyber cafés. What used to be just for Internet surfing and browsing metamorphosed into complete full-fledged gaming centers. Of course the Internet is still there but gaming now takes the spotlight and the attention of game-loving and esports aficionados in the country.”

Redulfin bared that High Grounds Café will also be the perfect breeding ground of future Filipino esports stars who can give esports players from other countries a run for their money. “The Philippines is a young entrant in the global esports arena. Compared to other gaming countries, I could say we’re behind but that was 2-5 years ago. Now, even if we started competing only last year in tournaments abroad, we gained much attention already with the recent triumph of the TNC Pro Team during WESG,” he said.

The TNC Pro Team, bannered by members Marco Polo “Raven” Fausto, Carlo “Kuku” Palad, Samson Solomon “Sam_H” Hidalgo, Timothy “Tims” Randrup, and Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa, made history by becoming the first Filipino grand champions at the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) 2016 Defense of the Ancients (DotA) 2 competition. The team took home a rich total prize pot of US$800,000 (roughly Php40 million) after defeating the Cloud9 team from Denmark in a heart-pounding finals match.

Redulfin and team manager Paulo Sy both admitted it’s tough to maintain a competitive team that should be well trained and funded. But with the arrival of the Predator desktops at High Grounds, they know that more and more esports “athletes” or gamers will have full access to powerful PCs that can deliver the best—and only the best—experience in leisure and competitive gaming.

“The players train for 8-10 hours every day and they need the best PCs to help them visualize and conceptualize strategies for every game. With their power and brawn, the Predator desktops are a big help in our aim to promote esports and hopefully, we can find the next best players that will bring pride to our country in future esports competitions abroad and help promote TNC as well,” declares both Redulfin and Sy.

“We are glad that TNC decided to use Predator desktops as their only gaming rigs at High Grounds Café. It just goes to show that Predator remains to be the only preferred gaming PCs by serious esports competitors who only want the best with the most premium components found inside, those that won’t conk out in the heat of the game any time of the day. Esports is serious stuff and is ultra-competitive that needs only the best PC for gameplay, and Predator is definitely it, without question,” explains Clark Gurden, Predator Brand Ambassador, Predator Headquarters. 

For his part, Jerome Matti, NVIDIA Consumer Sales Lead, Philippines, said: 

“We build the ultimate platform for gamers. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and 1060 GPUs are based on our most advanced Pascal architecture that delivers amazing speed and power efficiency, plus innovative new gaming technologies. And our advanced G-SYNC monitors are designed to give gamers incredibly smooth, tear-free gameplay. Together, they redefine what makes a perfect platform for the new generation of content. And with Acer’s exquisite craftsmanship, we are able to bring the world’s most advanced platform to the Philippines’ biggest iCafe, High Grounds powered by TNC. We are thrilled to see more and more GeForce PC gamers in the Philippines!”

For more about the Predator gaming system, go to the Predator Philippines Facebook page - @PredatorPhilippines.

New Brother JA-1450NT boosts global brand’s line of sewing machines for homes, small businesses

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Brother International Philippines Corporation (Brother Phils.) has launched in the Philippine market its latest entry-level home sewing machine model, the Brother JA-1450NT, to further boost its line of entry-level machines for use in homes and small businesses.

The JA-1450NT features include 14 built-in decorative and quilting stitches, automatic (4-step) buttonhole, top load bobbin, LED sewing light, auto threading system and twin needle sewing, with free arm conversion.

This compact and easy-to-use mechanical sewing machine model has all the basic features homemakers and sewing hobbyists need for their sewing projects and mending needs. Reasonably priced at PHP 9,995, Brother JA-1450NT is also perfect for young designers who want to start their own clothing line and enterprising individuals who want to manufacture customizable merchandise or enter any business for that matter, where they will need a reliable set of sewing machines.

Brother JA-1450NT features include 14 built-in decorative and quilting stitches, automatic (4-step) buttonhole, top load bobbin, LED sewing light, auto threading system and twin needle sewing, with free arm conversion. It also comes with an instructional DVD with bonus sewing projects.

What’s more, Brother Phils. President and chief executive officer Hocson said they also making sure that they are at their customers’ side by offering at no cost a training package with the purchase of the machine, and even train offsite, if needed.

“Offering free training is especially important for small and medium enterprises that always look for value to enable them to thrive in today’s competitive business landscape. We are committed to give our customers the training that will help them appreciate all the features of our sewing machines, and make them capable of maximizing these to help them become more creative and innovative in their products,” said Hocson.

The choice of the brand conscious market, Brother sewing machines’ superb value is largely attributable as well to its excellent and accessible after-sales service.

With Brother’s 13 Sewing and Embroidery Machine Authorized Service Centers with 53 branches nationwide, Hocson said that customers can rest assured that there is a Brother Authorized Service Center nearby to help them maximize the use, as well as maintain their Brother sewing machines.

Brother’s other sewing machines model available in the market include the GS-2700 mechanical sewing machine (SRP P10,995) with built-in needle threader, one-step buttonhole, and 27 built-in stitches.

The Brother JA-1450NT is also perfect for young designers who want to start their own clothing line and enterprising individuals who want to manufacture customizable merchandise

The GS-2700 mechanical sewing comes with a built-in needle threader, one-step buttonhole, and 27 built-in stitches

A trusted Japanese global brand with commitment to quality, Brother has the most extensive sewing machine ranges in the market consisting of innovative, easy-to-use, high-quality, feature-rich products designed to meet the needs of every home maker, sewing enthusiast or entrepreneur. 

Brother’s reliable and award-winning products also include printing and imaging solutions, label-makers and their respective consumables.

Visit brother.com.ph or call (02) 581-9888 for more product information.